


don't let me down, and i'll keep you around

by honeycola



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 20:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14292510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeycola/pseuds/honeycola
Summary: Beth and Rio have each other's backs.





	don't let me down, and i'll keep you around

1\. 

The problem with being an underground crime lord is the odd hours. There’s always something to do, like money laundering or saving his workers from trouble, but never enough time to sleep. Rio had a daytime job once (Starbucks when he was in high school, because they were lenient with tattoos), and he fondly remembers the set amount of hours. Too bad it didn’t pay enough.

He’s dragged up an unconscious subordinate halfway up the stairs of Beth’s house when the lights turn on, and he’s forced to look up into the eyes of his other nonbleeding, Kohl’s robe-wearing subordinate. 

“Rio,” Beth hisses. “What are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too,” Rio says, doing his best to hold up his friend. “Hey, can you give me a hand with this?”

Beth crosses her arms. “No. I didn’t offer to do you a favor.”

Normally, Rio would put her in the place, like with all of the other people bold enough to talk back to him, but he feels exhausted and his friend is getting really heavy.

“I’ll pay you,” he offers. 

Her eyebrow quirks up, but then she shakes her head. Before Rio is about to ignore her and trudge up the stairs, Beth walks to his level and grabs his friend. 

“I’m not taking your money in return for his life. He’s bleeding, for God’s sake,” Beth says. “Come on, let’s get him to the guest room.” 

She leads them up the stairs and to the end of the hallway where a cushy guest bedroom awaits them. Rio settles his friend down on the bed while Beth pulls a bunch of towels and a first-aid kit out of the bathroom. The house gets the quiet it needs as Rio works on replacing the bandages and Beth sits on the edge of the bed, watching him.

“There,” Rio says, applying the last bandage. “That should be good for the night.” 

Beth lets out a deep sigh of relief, and cocks her head towards the door. “I think we should let your friend rest.” 

Following Beth, Rio not-so-quietly walks down the stairs and follows her into the kitchen. He sets his gun on her state-of-the-art counter, and laughs when she rolls her eyes. 

“Where can a guy get some water around here?” Rio asks, opening and closing the cabinets and drawers.

“Can you please be quiet?" Beth hisses. "My kids are sleeping and have to go to school tomorrow. I mean, in 4 hours.” 

“All right, all right,” he says, filling up a plastic Spiderman cup with water dispensed from the fridge. He looks at her over the brim of the cup as he drinks, taking in the little glances she sends in his direction. When he’s finished drinking, he sets the cup down and looks down at the counter. It’s so quiet that they can both hear the other person opening and closing their mouth, fighting to see who will talk first.

“Well, it’s late,” Beth says, and Rio nods his head in agreement.

“Cool. Take care of my friend for me, yeah-” A yawn escapes from Rio’s mouth, and he blinks at Beth’s concerned face through sleepy, watery eyes. 

“Do you need somewhere to sleep tonight,” Beth says or asks, he can’t tell. If it wasn’t nighttime, he would think that she was blushing.

“I can drive fine on my own tonight,” Rio says. “Besides, my friend already took over your guest room.”

“I'd rather have you sleep on the couch instead of you driving into a stop sign or worse, into children heading to school early in the morning.” 

Beth’s maternal instincts convince him. 

“Fine,” he says, and if he wasn’t deprived of sleep, he would be suspicious of the smile on Beth’s face as she rushes to the laundry room, and comes back with an armful of blankets. He watches her set everything up for him. 

When he sits down on the makeshift bed, and is about to give himself up to sleep, Rio looks up at her. “If I don’t wake up in time, can you check to see if he’s still breathing?” 

“You’re very protective, aren’t you?” she asks him, fluffing his pillow for good measure. 

“I take care of my own,” he says. “I would do the same for you too, you know.”

She looks at him, but doesn’t register what he’s saying because she immediately starts laughing. “As if. Until this suburban bitch isn’t of any use to you anymore.”

When Beth turns her back to leave, Rio smiles. The lights are turned off when he hears her say, “Well, good night.”

“Good night to you too,” Rio mumbles before falling into the best slumber he’s had in a while.

 

2\. 

A few weeks later, Rio is sitting on Beth's doorsteps when she comes home with groceries. 

“I need you to help me with something,” he says, looking at everything but her.

“What is it?” Beth asks, and he opens the passenger door of his car and nods for her to go in. He can tell from the entire time they’re driving in silence that Beth doesn't expect for them to pull up to the closest Cloud9 superstore. They’re walking along the bedding aisle when Rio pulls a rolled-up catalogue from his pocket and launches into his explanation. 

“Okay, so I need to replace this one duvet cover that I lost during a move,” he says, pointing to the one that’s circled on the paper. “And I remember buying it from this location, but they told me that they didn’t have it or at any other nearby stores.”

“Are you serious?” Beth snorts. “Just get another duvet cover if they don't have the one you want. Like this one.”

Rio shakes his head at the one she shows him, and continues his rant. “ But I know that they keep extras in the back, because every business hides them in the back-”

“Ooh, or what about this one?” 

“-anyway, they don’t take guys like me seriously, so this is where you come in-”

“Oh, this one works just as well-”

“Beth,” Rio says, using her name, which forces her to pause. “It has to be this exact duvet cover. I literally can’t get a good night’s sleep without it.” 

“Fine. And just so you know, you’re being very annoying,” Beth says, putting back the third duvet cover that he’s rejected. He watches her march up to the employee, and hears her ask, “May I speak to your manager, please?” 

A few seconds later, a stocky, balding man comes up to them. Or at least, to Beth. “Hi, I’m the manager of this store. Was there something I could help you out with, miss?” 

“Hi, so my husband and I got this specific duvet cover as a gift from our wedding registry.” Beth says, looping her arm around Rio’s. “And during the move into our new house, we lost it! You know how it goes. Anyway, we fell in love with this specific duvet cover-” Beth points again at the frayed catalogue. “-and not only that, but we’re having a housewarming party this Saturday and the friends that gave us the duvet cover are coming and we don’t want them to think that we hate them-”

The manager raises up his hand to stop her from continuing. “Don’t worry, ma’am. I’ll go to the back and see what I can do,”

“Do you hear that, sweetie? They’re going to look for it!” Beth whispers not too quietly in Rio’s ear, right before the manager turns around and walks towards the back. Their arms are still linked when the manager comes back with the duvet cover. 

“Ring it up for the newlyweds,” the store manager tells the cashier, who gawks at Rio’s neck tattoo.

“I know what you’re thinking. My mom eventually came around,” Beth winks at the cashier. 

After purchasing the duvet cover successfully, they walk out of the store together. He doesn’t even realize that they're still holding hands until Beth unlinks them in the parking lot. 

“Your friends were right. You are a pretty convincing liar,” he says when they get inside his car.

“Oh, it's nothing,” she says, and Rio grins before driving out of the parking lot. 

 

3\. 

Beth texts him that she’s too swamped with chores and can’t meet him at the park for the usual handoff, so Rio decides to do her a favor. When he walks up to her house, he sees Beth’s kid sitting outside with his backpack and workbooks strewn out on the table. Through the open windows, Beth is running around like a madwoman in the kitchen with the other three kids. She wasn’t lying about being busy. 

“Hey, you’re Mom’s friend,” Kenny says when Rio comes closer. Rio tries not to smile, but it’s kind of nice to have someone talk to him without it being precipitated by fear.

“Sort of,” Rio says. “So...what are you working on this time?” 

“Math,” Kenny sighs. “Mom says that I can’t watch TV until I finish it.”

Rio sits down on the bench next to him. “Bet it would go a lot faster if you had some extra help.” 

When Beth comes out of the house an hour later, Rio is in the middle of showing Kenny a few shortcuts on the last problem. He finally notices her presence, and they lock eyes. He’s expecting to get shooed away, but instead, Beth walks up to them, and collects the homework from Rio’s hand, brushing her fingers against his.

“Go watch TV before dinner starts,” she says to Kenny, who takes off, clearly forgetting the both of them.

“Were you seriously helping my kid with his math homework?” Beth asks Rio.

Rio shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket so she won’t see how shaky they are. “It’s no big deal.”

Beth looks at the homework, and then back at Rio. “Didn’t know you were so good at math.” 

He smirks. “You have to be good at math if you’re dealing with fake money.”

A little smile appears on Beth’s face, and it’s the best thing he’s seen in a while. She catches him staring, but before he can move on to the subject of business, she grabs the back of his neck. There’s a quick pause for him to register what’s going on before she crashes her lips into his, and on instinct, he pulls her closer towards him. She presses up against him, reminding him of how long he’s wanted this.

Then, there’s the sound of a car pulling into the driveway and Beth is pushing herself off like it's the FBI, but it’s just her husband glaring at the both of them. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what I’m doing,” Beth says in a tiny voice. Rio can't even see the look on her face, because he’s too distracted by the tacky “Boland Motors” license plate.

“I’ll come back another time,” Rio says, and leaves before he shows any sign of hurt.

 

4\. 

For a while, Rio does the handoffs with the other two women. He tries not to eavesdrop on their conversations, but Annie’s really loud and Ruby is much more meticulous about counting their cut of the profit so it takes longer. He's beginning to know way too much about a rekindled flame with a guy named Gregg and the police officer husband Stan, whose name sounds oddly familiar. 

“So where’s your sister?” Rio asks, and Annie pauses in the middle of her story.

“I think she’s with her divorce attorney. Something about Dean faking cancer,” Annie answers quickly.

Ruby stops counting the money. “Annie!” 

“What? You know I can’t keep a secret.” 

As Ruby lectures Annie about the golden rule of keeping your mouth shut, Rio tries to remember in his head if he has any plans for the rest of the night.

-

Beth sits outside of her house when Rio arrives unannounced. She’s holding a glass of wine in her hands, and takes a deep swig as Rio comes closer to her. There are stains of mascara all over her face.

“Bad time?” he asks.

Beth shakes her head. “Just found out that my soon to be ex-husband lied about having prostate cancer. And he paid some doctor to do it.” 

Rio whistles. “Ouch.”

He watches her drain the rest of the wine from her glass, and then throw her head down. In the event that she’ll fall over and pass out, Rio takes a seat next to her. They sit like that for a while, with him listening to her sob quietly.

“How did you even end up with him?” he asks. Rio also wants to mention the 20-year marriage and the 4 kids, but Kenny’s actually pretty cool, even if he is mathematically challenged. God, he hopes Kenny won’t end up like his dad.

“I don’t even know anymore,” she sighs, raising her head up. “I think I just wanted stability, I guess. The dream husband, dream family, dream house, dream everything. Didn’t know I was settling for a liar and a cheat. And why am I even dumping this all on you?” 

Rio leans back on the porch, and smiles at her. “You’d be surprised with what people come to me with.” 

Beth smiles back, and while rubbing the tears and runoff mascara off her face, starts laughing. “You’re always surprising me.” 

She leans into him, and drops her head on his shoulder. He doesn’t shake her off. 

 

5\. 

Rio finds himself more and more at Beth’s house. When he deposits his toothbrush into her cup, he catches her smirking at him in the mirror.

“This is for hideout reasons,” Rio says.

“Oh really? Why are you hiding out in my bed every night then?” Beth says, looming into his personal space to mock him, and she squeals when he picks her up and hoists her up on the sink, quieting her down in his own way. Guns pointed at her head don’t work, but kisses do.

**Author's Note:**

> \- Title is from Sabrina Claudio's song "Don't Let Me Down."  
> \- I love Beth/Rio like crazy, and man, this show is so good at dragging out their tension. So I had to write them because it's taking forever for them to kiss.


End file.
